Shadows of the Past
by Sinny of Yellowboze
Summary: Even the smallest of actions has repercussions. When those repercussions involve a Hunter, you'd best be prepared. Followup piece to Darrel Whitney's 'Ghosts of the Past'.
1. Author's Notes

**Shadows of the Past**

_Author's Notes:_

_Blame Darrel. No, seriously, blame Darrel. And Eden, while you're at it. But mostly blame Darrel._

_I don't how many – if any – of you read my supposedly one-off short, _Unsealing The Door_, but shortly after I finished that and decided that Herb and Mome really _would_ make a cute couple, Darrel came up with _Ghosts of the Past_. Once I got over my initial shock, not to mention the sudden urge to deck Mr. Prolific Author for the sheer cunning evilness of the plot, I realized that it would affect Herb. A lot._

_So, after a little sucking up, I got Eden's permission to use Sejanus a bit, and Darrel's permission to reference _Ghosts of the Past_, I sat down and wrote a plot outline… and then first semester started, and I lost both the plot outline and 11 months of my life. It's probably a bad thing that I was more pissed off about losing the outline than the time._

_But now I'm back, I've got a LOT of free time, and I finally got Phantasy Star Online for the Gamecube! Whee! And so Herb has crawled from one memory card to another, decking me something silly in the process, and been joined by a RAmarl called Shard, and a friend's HUcast, AJ. They're a bit… well, you'll find out soon enough._

_But seriously. Blame Darrel._

_ Sinny_


	2. Chapter 1

**Shadows of the Past**

_PhanGarret invented 'The Guild', but the idea of a Hunter's Guild Soap Opera makes me laugh so much I couldn't let it die. Sorry dude. Hit me later, okay?_

Chapter One

A lot has happened to me recently. A hell of a lot. So much, in fact, that I was starting to have trouble keeping track just what had happened to who, and when.

Normally I dismiss everything my mother has to say pretty much out of hand. Hey, I've got my reasons, alright? Not everyone has good relationships with their parents, and that comment includes us Newmen too. But she did always say to me that sometimes the best way to sort out events is to write them down and see what comes of it. Probably the only thing she ever said to me that I paid any attention to.

So, anyway, let's start from the beginning and we'll see what we find, no?

First things first. My name's Herb, Herb Rosaline Delryn. Actually, my name's not all that bad when you compare it to my sister's names – Flora Dawn and Fawn Elisa. I think I got off alright – Herb makes a good Hunter's name, and most people think that Rosaline is my proper name. I haven't bothered to really enlighten many people on that, except for some close friends in the Guild, and of course Mome.

Poor Mome. He hasn't got the best reputation amongst the other Hunters, but he's actually a very kind-hearted person. Our relationship only lasted a few weeks, but we've remained good friends anyway. I find his dedication to the truth refreshing, especially after some of the other scientists I've worked with since we reached Ragol!

And, unfortunately, it was Mome who indirectly got me and my friends into this mess. But that comes later.

As you've probably guessed by now, I'm a Hunter – a HUnewearl if you really want to use the proper designation, but I've never really been one for formalities and things like that. I've managed to reach a pretty high rank in the Guild on the basis of lots and lots of quests completed, not small number of which I've gotten through on sheer will alone. I've got a quiet reputation as being as stubborn as a mule and pretty smart besides, so I'm also becoming a preferred partner for some of the other high rankers as well. It pays to have brains, especially if you can use them right!

I spend a fair amount of time on Ragol, although a lot less since a few friends and I took out Dark Falz. Yes, that's right, you heard me. I was one of the ones who fought Dark Falz. I'd love to say that it was easy, that we didn't so much as suffer a scratch, but I'd be lying. I lost my mentor that day.

'Noel' Jennifer Chandler, a HUnewearl like myself, the person who taught me everything I knew and the woman who destroyed the Black Hound. She took a blast meant for me, and died in my arms. I keep her picture in my locket with me at all times, and every time I falter I just look at that shot of her at my graduation, and I get a whole new surge of strength and determination. She never backed down over anything.

So yeah, I guess you could say I got a lot of my stubbornness from her. I know I didn't get it from my mother. She never stood up for herself over anything. She's so damned weak, she never even objected when I went charging off to Ragol without a thought for the consequences, she just waited until I came back and acted all motherly. Yuck. My sisters take after her too, which drives me nuts. I need the occasional big argument to keep my brain in gear.

I definitely got my flamboyance from Dad. You might have heard of him? Danden Delryn, the insane mind behind 'The Guild'. I was actually on that once, just a bit part, a HUnewearl who accompanied the main character down to the mines and promptly got killed by a collapsing bridge. The stunt was so much fun to do, and because I'm a Newman I didn't even need help, just a big mat to land on. It was brilliant. I reckon if I wasn't a hunter I'd be an actress, or a stunt double. Something fun like that.

Anyway. It wasn't highly publicised outside of the Labs and the Guild, but not long ago Mome was poisoned. I was absolutely out of my mind from worry, I barely even ate or slept. They wouldn't even let me into the same room as him at the time, so I spent most of those few terrible days just gazing at him from an observation room. At the time they thought it was the D-Factor, so I remember just waiting for the first signs of mutation. I don't know what I would have done if he'd turned into a monster, though. Probably just stand there and let him kill me, probably.

I remember the nurse who came in and told me the news. For some reason I don't remember a word she said, beyond the fact that Mome wasn't really infected with the D-Factor and that he was going to get better. I just have this perfect screenshot in mind of her – long pink hair, kind blue eyes, the sort of body that makes the otherwise tougher-than-titanium Hunters act like babies so they can go to the Medical Centre and ogle the nurses. Pam, her name is. She's actually dating Mome now. Good luck to the pair of them. They're cute. Really.

………

Okay, so maybe I'm a wee bit jealous. She's damn hot.

But back to the chase. Pam told me about Sejanus – a RAmar, apparently, and obviously a smart one to have worked everything out – and what Natasha had done to Mome. Once I was sure he'd be okay, I went to find a shower and a meal. Like I said, I hadn't left the room in days. When I was cleaned up I went to find food, but I wound up walking straight into the armoured back of a Ranger. Which hurts. I was kind of stunned for a moment, but then I saw that it was a registered hunter, and his companion was a HUnewearl, so I didn't feel too embarrassed. It was only a few hours later, once I'd eaten and slept, that I was subject to that emotion.

The important part though, was that I'd managed to find the man who saved Mome without really looking. He's kind of intimidating, especially because he's so tall, and I'm such a short-ass, but I wasn't really bothered. Half the Guild are scary. You get used to it after a while.

"Hey, are you the Sejanus who helped Doctor Mome?" I asked, looking up – way up! – at him. He nodded, and on sheer impulse I gave him a hug. Boy, did that earn him a look or two from his friend! "Thanks. Bye!"

I ran off, and I swear I could hear the HUnewearl making some snarky comment about what he did when he was supposed to be working. I did send him a pretty sweet rifle a few days later, and when I bumped into him again recently, he was carrying it, so I guess it all worked out. Besides, it's not like I could use a rifle. I can barely use mechguns!

A couple of days later Mome himself told me all about what had happened, and about the data. He also told me something I don't think he told anyone else – he'd sent a copy of the data to an observational unit in the Ruins.

That was when this whole mess really got started. I decided to get the data back. Really, I should know better by now.


	3. Chapter 2

**Shadows of the Past**

_Many thanks to JA/AJ for letting me use AJ the insane HUcast. Herb's mine, as you probably guessed by now, and Shard is ostensibly mine but I think I'm hers. I don't own any of the other characters, Sejanus belongs to Eden and Darrel Whitney and everyone else belongs to Sega. Lucky them._

Chapter Two

Two days later I was on my couch with my friend Shard, laughing at the latest episode of 'The Guild'. That's the thing about that show – civilians watch it and are impressed, Hunters watch it and dissolve into hysterical laughter.

Shard. Man, she's something else. She's nominally a RAmarl, but in reality she does a little bit of everything. She's a damn fine shot with mechguns, decent with a saber, and she can toss around blasts of fiery death second only to a Force. And she's completely nuts! She makes me laugh more than anyone else I know, and recently that's been important to me. Plus she's one of the best Rangers I've ever worked with.

Actually, now I think about it, excentric but talented describes me and most of my workmates. Shard's cheeky and completely off-base, I'm as stubborn as the proverbial mule, and our sometime compatriot AJ, well, if I didn't know better I'd say he had some serious programming errors. And I'm not entirely sure I know better.

"I can't believe people think Hunters _do_ that!" Shard squealed, right in my ear. She can get some serious volume going, that woman. The 'that' she was referring to was probably the funniest thing either of us had ever seen – Infurno, the main character on 'The Guild', had stripped down to his boxers to cope with the heat of the Caves! We'd started giggling the instant he unbuttoned his shirt, and we hadn't stopped since.

Stripping in the caves! I could see my father's twisted mind at work from a million miles away. Next time I saw him I'd have to give him the Noogie of Doom. Something else I learnt from Shard. She's very resourceful.

"Gotta like the view, though," I quipped, causing Shard to fall off the couch laughing like a loony. I don't get to do that very often, so I took the most of the opportunity and lunged at her with a banshee scream, tickling her remorselessly.

It was about that point that I remembered that Shard isn't ticklish, and I am.

Five minutes later I was completely pinned by the rampaging RAmarl and hysterical from laughter, so breathless that I was bordering on hyperventilating. Shard, on the other hand, was on a loopy high, giggling like a schoolgirl.

Actually, I've never really understood that. Are schoolgirls really known for giggling like idiots? I was educated in a lab, so I don't really know.

"You know, if AJ walked in right now, we'd be all over the network." I'm not sure which of us said it, but we suddenly sobered and Shard all but leapt off, kneeing me in the stomach in the process. I retaliated with a kick to her ankle, and we were even. We have that kind of relationship. Abusive and loving all at once. I've lost track of the people who think we're a couple. We're not, but we're definitely very close.

"Speaking of homicidal HUcasts," I said once we were both back on the couch, "I need to head down to Ragol to retrieve something. I was wondering if you and AJ wanted to back me up? I'll pay, of course."

Shard instantly got serious. I wish I knew how she did that. "You're paying? That means it's something you're doing off the bat, which means it's something that you've gotten interested in from someone else, which means that someone's been telling you stuff. So, who is it? One of the lab boys?"

I looked down at my hands. I may even have blushed. Shard knows me well enough to know what that meant.

"Oh man. I know that expression – and it's never good. Which was it, Montague or Mome? Whoop, never mind, Montague is lying low for the time being thanks to WORKS, and besides you weren't in the Guild when that whole Seabed mess went down." She gave me one of those looks, the ones that get right inside your brain and make you want to cry. "I wouldn't recommend getting involved, but I know you're stubborn and I kind of want to see what's in that anyway."

It was my turn for distribution of the look. "We'll never get AJ to agree to it, will we?"

"If I weren't so curious, _I_ wouldn't agree to it!" she said with one of her crooked grins. "Aren't many Hunters who would. You were watching Mome at the time, but that incident lead to several Hunters dying, one in hospital almost dead, and another making a deal with the devil. Most people would take one look and tell you to go to hell!"

After that we organized the details during ad break, watching any random crap which came on. Eventually Shard went back to her own apartment, wherever that happened to be – we always met in my apartment, her excuse being that I can keep house.

Eventually I went to bed, but my sleep was haunted by nightmares of shadows and people I love turning away from me.

It wasn't a prophecy, not exactly, but next time I get nightmares like that before a mission, I'm gonna bail. What came afterwards convinced me of that.


	4. Chapter 3

**Shadows of the Past**

_Many thanks to JA/AJ for letting me use AJ the insane HUcast. Herb's mine, as you probably guessed by now, and Shard is ostensibly mine but I think I'm hers. I don't own any of the other characters, Sejanus belongs to Eden and Darrel Whitney and everyone else belongs to Sega. Lucky them._

Chapter Three

I met Shard just outside the teleporter to Ragol. As always she was wearing high heels and a camo uniform in drab olive green, whilst I'd decided to wear my tiger-striped yellow bikini suit. It's really muggy in the Ruins, and I've never dealt well with heat. Besides, I take an evil pleasure in making otherwise intelligent – if burly – Hunters walk into walls. It makes me laugh.

I took one look at the guns Shard was carrying and almost walked away again. She had a pair of handguns called Guld and Milla, only I knew from previous experience that she used them like mechguns and generally managed to destroy entire buildings with them. Don't laugh, I was there the last time.

Hell, she left me feeling somewhat under-equipped. I'd brought a set of Twin Chakrams, a personal favourite, and my pride and joy, a Monkey King Bar. They're really rare, and won't go into the details of what I wound up trading for it. Totally worth it, of course, and let's face it, what's a FOmar going to do with one of these things?

(Shard looked over my shoulder at that point and made an incredibly crude comment. I'll smack her once I stop laughing. Maybe. I certainly am _not_ going to write it down, the unit would melt.)

Oh bollocks, where was I? Oh yeah.

We swapped some mindless pleasantries, referred to a non-existent quest (I was already a little bit paranoid at that point, considering that what we were about to do was just a tiny bit illegal), and teleported to the ruins.

I don't know if I've mentioned it before, so I'll mention it now to make my point entirely clear: I. _HATE._ The Ruins.

Imagine, if you will, a fairly normal set of corridors and rooms on the Pioneer 2. Now turn them the brown of dried blood. Then add strange fleshy protrusions and sections of wall that actually move when you're not looking at them, and a series of mutations that may or may not have once been an intelligent race. Worried yet? Good.

Although I could see the logic of transferring the data here – I mean seriously, how many scientists or computer technicians come here? – I still wished he'd thought of somewhere else. Then again, who knows what goes on in Mome's head some days? I sure as hell don't, and I used to date the man.

Another thing about the Ruins. Always take someone who knows Resta with you, especially if you're a _Hunter_ Hunter, because I can promise you right now, you're going to get the tar beaten out of you. The first few rooms were okay – Claws are dead-set easy to beat – but then we encountered the bane of my existence. Delsabers.

Assuming you aren't too freaked out by that lovely little image of the Ruins I had you conjure up earlier, here's another little exercise for your imagination. Take your average saber wielding HUmar. Strip him down to a skeleton, but keep his weapon and shield. Warp the bones a bit, fuse the saber and shield to his wrists and hands, and add a thin layer of purplish-black flesh that shimmers in a really worrying way. Yeah, that's a Delsaber. Enough to put you off the job for life, some days.

And, as I discovered very quickly, if you're even remotely distracted they like to toy with you. Shard was busy handling one of those centaur things, and I was crowing after smacking two of the Delsabers with one swing of the MKB. And then the third one shoved its blade through my shoulder into the wall, pinning me there.

Needless to say, I swore. A lot. I used every filthy word I could come up with, then moved on to a few of the dirtier sayings I'd picked up from hanging around Hunters in bars. Then, running low, I started on ancient Palmanian curses. I was pissed. I was also stuck.

I was about ready to admit that I was going to die there when I heard this inarticulate yell and the pressure pushing me to the wall broke off, leaving me to fall to the floor, blade still in my shoulder. A heeled boot pushed into my back and the blade was yanked free. I fell backwards and stared up at Shard for a while, mouthing obsceneties.

Finally I managed "What took you so long?" Hey, I was in shock and running out of blood. You try being witty and original in my place. Ha, told you so.

"Hey, I could have reloaded properly and not risked blowing the gun up in my face." I didn't really have a retort for that, so I let her cast Resta and stood up. Somehow I'd had the MKB in my hand the whole time and not tried anything. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

"That was pretty impressive, though. You didn't even repeat yourself! Where'd you learn that one about Great Lutz and Flaeli?" She was grinning from ear to ear. I just blushed. A lot. I'd picked that one up from a genuine Esper, although I'd sworn blind not to tell anyone his secret. I didn't either. To this day I'm one of the rare few who knows that there really are Espers on the ship.

Whoops. I'll have to erase that last bit some time. Or not. Half the ship is fairly certain that most of the Forces are Espers anyway, so who'd really worry about it? Alright, I might get a Flaeli or two up the ass for it, but if they sent you-don't-know-who I'd probably be too busy trying to stare at his ass to care. So I'm a bit shallow. Never underestimate the power of a nice ass.

(Shard's making obscene comments again. I have got to start paying more attention to my surroundings, or anybody could be reading these. Yikes, bad thought.)

Speaking of nice asses (That's it, I'm throwing her out!), not long after the Delsaber incident we met another Hunter. Well, met probably isn't the best word.

I think the phrase I'm looking for is 'saved from certain death'.


	5. Chapter 4

**Shadows of the Past**

_Many thanks to JA/AJ for letting me use AJ the insane HUcast. Herb's mine, as you probably guessed by now, and Shard is ostensibly mine but I think I'm hers. I don't own any of the other characters, Sejanus belongs to Eden and Darrel Whitney and everyone else belongs to Sega. Lucky them._

Chapter Four

You know how sometimes you see something and you instantly know what's going to happen, even though logically you shouldn't?

I got that big time. We walked into another room, and I knew we were getting close to the terminal, seeing as I'm kinda sorta almost nearly the reason that it's disconnected from the network most of the time. Hey, it was doing weird things to the Ruins! The place is crazy enough on it's own, thanks!

Anyway. I absorbed the situation in about 1/1000th of a second flat. Dark Belra. Two Delsabers. A whole pack of those Dimenian things, I'd say about nine now that I really think about it. And somewhere in the middle of all that, occasionally yelling a very familiar battle cry, the flash of orange armour that can only belong to a HUmar.

I have to admit, for the briefest of brief moments, I thought Noel had come back as a man. Then I was wading in, Twin Chakrams in hand and bloodlust in my eyes. I think – I know – I was still pissed about the Delsaber-Wall thing, and I was trying my very best to get to the two fuckers and kill them.

Didn't quite work that way. Even accounting for my slightly sloppy technique at the time, due to anger and all that crap, Shard's guns weren't doing anywhere near enough damage. Normally those things can punch a hole through foot-thick titanium alloy, but she was barely even chipping the armour on these things. I was having slightly more luck, seeing as how my weapons were specifically designed for slicing through stuff like that, but _still…_

I found myself back to back with the HUmar. I didn't see much, little more than a flash of tired blue eyes and a mop of brown hair really. But trust me, we were pressed back to back for a while there, and all I'm saying on the subject is that I like HUmars for a reason. They make me feel all fuzzy and sexy.

Oh, shut up. Trust me, in the heat of battle all kinds of odd things spring to mind. And for some reason one of the ones that comes up most often – for me anyway – is men. I can't help it, alright?

(I've just been 'reassured' by Shard that I'm not the only one, but I'm not so sure that her word is the best benchmark for something like this.)

We won through eventually. We'd been at it so long I felt like my arms were going to drop off, though. And of course, being the front-liners, the HUmar and myself were dripping with all kinds of yucky stuff, bleeding from lots of wounds, and generally battered in the way that most Rangers and Forces will never, ever experience. I stabbed the Belra a few times to make sure it was dead, then sat on it. Yeah, that's how wiped I was. Flinging a couple of Foie blasts during the fight hadn't helped one bit. I pulled a Trimate and Trifluid from my inventory and chugged them both in one massive gulp.

Ahhh, the blessed pain of healing.

The HUmar did the same thing, and Shard quite literally smacked me upside the head. I was reliably informed later that my eyes crossed for a second.

"What the hell did you think you were doing? We have a policy, remember? DON'T CHARGE INTO BATTLE WITHOUT WARNING ME, GOD-FUCKING-DAMMIT!"

I just stared. Shard gets angry a lot, but she almost never swears like that. Normally she takes something normal and makes it sound dirty. Like 'Mother of Little Pigs'. She sure confused Principal Tyrell with that one. That was before we gave up working for the Council, of course.

The HUmar just stared at Shard. I don't blame him, she's damned scary when she's pissed off. Of course, he never did understand that Shard only gets really angry when she's worried. I eventually stemmed the tide by making a silly face and making with the tickles. It took a while for me to eventually get my breath back, but it did calm Shard down enough that she wouldn't try to hurt the new guy.

Speaking of whom, the poor guy was looking at us like we were crazy. We'd just gone from combat to abusive shouting to tickle fight, so yeah, he was bit thrown off. He's gotten used to it since.

"Uh. I. Um. Thanks." He was just a little bit lost for words. Who can blame him?

"No problem," I said, wriggling out from under Shard and shaking his hand. "Name's Herb, by the way. That's Shard, try not to piss her off. She bites." Shard make shark-teeth chomping. It's something we do to a lot of people we meet. To this day I think he's scared of being bitten by Shark-Shard.

"I'm Ash," he replied, and something inside my head just clicked. You know what I mean, like one of those magnetic puzzles most of us had as kids. Ka-klick! Like that.

"Holy shit! You're one of, you knew, I mean you, AGH!" I'll admit it. My brain kind of shut down around about that point. Thing is, I already knew this guy, at least by proxy. The Black Hound incident was what prompted Noel to take on an apprentice, namely me, because she almost let someone die, namely Ash. So yeah, I had a major shutdown of all systems.

Shard had also been pretty close to Noel, probably knew her better than me, so she knew what I was trying to say. Which is just as well, because I was about to have a fit of some kind.

"Dammit Ash! Where the hell have you been?" she demanded, launching herself at him and unleashing the Noogie of Doom. Obviously he'd been subject to it before, judging by his reaction, but still. I pity anyone on the receiving end of that thing. It's both painful and undignified.

He eventually squirmed free. I couldn't help myself – I snickered. His hair looked like he'd been ambushed by a tornado. And of course, as soon as I snickered, Shard giggled, I laughed, she laughed, he laughed, and the entire situation degenerated from there.

Eventually we calmed down – sort of – and we got around to asking Ash what he was doing down there. Training, he said. _Training!_ Noel was right, he is a twit.

"You're a loony!" I declared dramatically. I pointed back at the Belra to illustrate my point. "If we hadn't turned up, you'd have been turned into a big smear on the floor!"

Not that there aren't plenty of smears on the floor in the Ruins anyway, but that's something for another time.

"Excuse us a second," Shard said, grabbing my arm and hauling me back into the corridor. "Hey, I had an idea. Let's get him to team up with us. You won't need to pay him because he was down here without a quest, and I know you think he's cute."

I glanced back at the bemused Hunter. She was right of course, both about the payment and my attitude. She really pisses me off some days. She's definitely gotten worse since Doctor Montague went to ground, though. She'd almost talked Elenor into letting her scan her systems, which is Shard-speak for 'copy the design to make an android'. Shard's always wanted an android servant, but she can't get permission because she's a Hunter.

Damn, I'm a fool. I can't believe I listened to her.


End file.
